I’m not a poet. But if I was, I’d write an ode to the community rink maker.

It takes 100 hours a month on average to maintain an outdoor ice rink. That’s hard work in the bitter cold. When temperatures plunge and most of us huddle indoors, that’s when the rink makers haul out the water hoses. There’s nothing like water vapour to make a cold job colder.

And many of those cold fingers belong to volunteers.

Seriously, Edmonton has a really good thing going. Using property taxes, the City of Edmonton gives annual operating grants of $17,000 a year, on average, to each community league. With that, leagues run neighbourhood soccer, operate community halls, review development proposals, host festivals and make ice.

The ice alone can swallow that grant. Hiring someone to flood and maintain just one rink costs $10,000 a year in wages and several thousand dollars in utilities.

The rest of the funding comes from people volunteering at casinos and the sale of community league memberships, plus sweat equity from dedicated volunteers. If the city were to try to run all 115 community rinks and iceways — like it does for parks and soccer fields — it would be crazy expensive.

But let’s stop and think about this system for a minute, because many of those volunteers get burned out.

“I was exhausted today, but I didn’t even have the brush off and there were 17 people (getting their skates on).”

That was Garth Williams, volunteer facilities director at Blue Quill, after a heavy snowfall last Saturday. The community league pays university students $20 an hour to maintain the ice but he is usually out there as well, creating an amenity just to bring neighbours together, give young people something to do and build a stronger community.

T.J. Bruzdzinski, 6, heads out onto the ice at the West Jasper/Sherwood Community League outdoor rink, 9620 152 St., in Edmonton on April 7, 2018.David Bloom /
Postmedia

Williams gets frustrated because people think these rinks are free. They assume the city maintains them and don’t recognize the volunteer labour. Community leagues ask people to buy a membership, usually available online and at a local business, but no one wants to be the “rink Nazi” and check for skate tags, he says.

Many community leagues have stories about volunteer burnout, being unable to open a rink some years because no one can be found to make ice, said Laura Cunningham-Shpeley, executive director of the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues.

“If we could help bring awareness, maybe you don’t want to buy a membership, but how can you help?” she says. People can make a donation, or add their name to a volunteer list to help clean the rink shack, supervise a community skate time or replace the rink lights.

They surveyed community leagues about rink efforts recently and she joined the city’s WinterCity steering committee to make sure the city doesn’t take these for granted. “Rinks have been a bit forgotten.”

I think the basic concept is good — some city funds matched with volunteer effort means those neighbourhoods that want and use rinks, get them. It’s good for people to be involved in shaping their own community programs.

I love the rink near my house. One mother organizes drop-in shinny for children. I host a little skaters’ club Saturday mornings with games to help kids just starting out. It’s so easy to organize with social media and a few physical posters. Families just walk over.

But I’ve been guilty of taking the ice for granted, too.

In my position as columnist, I hear complaints about the rinks — that they’re not open quick enough and don’t have the right drop-in shinny. That’s why I want to recognize all the volunteer labour that goes into them.

Please don’t complain about the rink until you’ve considered how to help. Even when the ice is done by paid contractors, there’s lots of room to contribute. Community leagues are run by a wide variety of volunteers and even small efforts are appreciated. Picking up a shovel, organizing drop-in shinny, making a poster to share the rink story — perhaps it’s easier than you think.

Learn to skate

Want to learn to skate? The City of Edmonton is partnering with several community leagues to run free drop-in learn to skate programs. These run from Jan. 7 through Feb. 17. More information at edmonton.ca/learntoskate.

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